Accesibilidad horizontal: conocer y conservar el patrimonio, cómo conjugar un derecho con una necesidad

Abstract

Historically, people have tried to adapt the environment to their needs. Today to design adequately an environment it is required to keep on mind all the potential users. Therefore, accessibility has become a basic condition to consider from the very beginning of the any architectural project. So, access to heritage is a right for all the people as a fundamental part of its own culture, which poses the issue: how to intervene in built heritage to make it accessible, which includes monuments, historic gardens and archaeological sites without excessive disturbance. There are important barriers in many heritage sites. Besides, the possibilities for intervention in the heritage are limited due to the needs of conservation as an important part of the culture. The novelty to combine the concepts of heritage and accessibility at first may seem antithetical, because the first looks to preserve existing assets while the second tends to remove whatever is possible to achieve integral accessibility. The thread connecting both ideas is the usability of the property by the entire population. To do so, it is very important to have tools and methodologies to make accessible the heritage and to take into account their special characteristics and needs. Currently, the project "PATRAC Accessible Heritage: R & D for a culture without barriers" (project led by GEOCISA LABEIN and in which the IBV with 22 other partners) has developed a methodology including an analysis of the functional diversity of Spanish population, an analysis of existing barriers in the Spanish heritage, an analysis of the product support that can facilitate access to heritage and at the same time, it is addressing the development of specific products that enable access to heritage for all the people. The goal is to develop products and systems that ensure a safe and comfortable access to the heritage for all citizens, in a reversible way which ensures the compatibility with the cultural assets, in phases of conservation and exploitation of existing buildings. In this context, an example of how to improve horizontal access is the creation of specific floors, which are being developed by AZTECA, ACCIONA and IBV. The idea is to use an in-ground-present irregularities elevated walkways composite tile digitally printed with the original pavement and the proper signals. Such a system improves the accessibility of the path and at the same time allow distinguish the intervention from the original. For the construction of a ceramic surface on high-accessible areas, requirements regarding safety, accessibility and use loads of the pavement should be took in account. Moreover, the resulting product will have to take into account emotional and functional requirements of users. The impact is very high by the novelty of the topic of the project. The devices to be generated will enable to carry out visits without any difficulty for the part of users who today have the biggest problems for access to the property because of their condition. And it will take in account the conservation needs of the heritage as well.